Investor who mesmerized Musk on conference call opened 'Pandora's box'

(Reuters) - A 25-year-old investor of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), whose 23-minute conversation with Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk dominated a post-earnings conference call, said he had opened “Pandora’s box” and elevated the level of conversation possible on the routine calls.

FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk listens at a press conference following the first launch of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Joe Skipper/File Photo

On Wednesday, Musk strayed from the usual Q&A protocol with analysts that cover the electric car company and fielded more than a dozen straight questions from YouTube investment channel owner Galileo Russell, who had previously recommended buying Tesla shares on his HyperChange TV.

The spotlight turned to Russell when Musk tired of traditional Wall Street queries said “we’re going to go to YouTube.”

Russell’s questions ranged from battery pack technology on the Semi truck to the possibility of opening up the infrastructure of Superchargers to other automakers for revenue, and Musk was all ears.

“Analysts have different incentives and so I think I kind of opened Pandora’s box through for what’s possible on an earnings call,” he told Reuters on Thursday.

“They know they ask worse questions than me and that’s why Musk gave me the floor for so long,” he said, referring to the Wall Street professionals.

Russell described himself as a finance nerd whose site follows his personal investments. He has been investing since the age of 14 and has followed Tesla for a decade (bit.ly/2rh99Zs)

“I managed over $500,000 for private clients coming out of college and prior to that I was part of this startup that managed money and I invested all in Tesla at $29 per share,” he said.

While analysts were upset with Musk’s treatment of Wall Street, several praised Russell’s questions.

“It was actually pretty refreshing to have someone come in and be able to ask more strategic questions,” Ark Invest’s Tasha Keeney said. Ark owns 360,000 Tesla shares in their funds.

One of the analysts Musk cut short, RBC Capital’s Joseph Spak, also had good things to say about Russell. The blogger to be fair had some good, but very big picture questions, he said.

Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Sonam Rai in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr